Freight services
Shipping Veterinary Medicines and Animal Health Products to South Sudan
Livestock vaccines, acaricides, dewormers, trypanocides and veterinary supplies, moved with the cold chain intact and the compliance handled. In a country where a herd is a household's savings, animal health cargo is not ordinary freight.
Who this is for
Agrovet shops and veterinary wholesalers, livestock programmes run by NGOs and UN agencies, state and county veterinary services, commercial ranches, dairy and poultry operations, private veterinarians and animal health workers, and research and diagnostic laboratories.
Why this cargo is different here
In much of South Sudan a herd is not a business asset. It is a household's savings, its dowry, its food security and its social standing all at once. An outbreak does not reduce a margin, it removes a family's capital.
That shapes the logistics. Vaccination campaigns run to seasons and to cattle movements, not to office calendars. The cold chain has to survive a journey that ends well past the last tarmac. And a consignment that arrives a month late has usually missed the thing it was bought for. South Sudan has been rebuilding veterinary cold chain capacity precisely because that last stretch is where vaccines were being lost.
What we move
Vaccines and biologicals
- Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia vaccines
- Peste des petits ruminants vaccines
- Anthrax, blackquarter and haemorrhagic septicaemia vaccines
- Foot and mouth disease, Rift Valley fever and lumpy skin disease vaccines
- Newcastle disease and other poultry vaccines
- Rabies vaccines
- Diluents, which travel with the vaccine they belong to
Parasite control
- Acaricides for dipping, spraying and pour on application
- Anthelmintics and dewormers, oral, injectable and bolus
- Trypanocides, which matter enormously in tsetse affected areas
- Ectoparasite treatments and fly control
Treatment and production
- Antibiotics, injectable and oral
- Anti inflammatories, analgesics and anaesthetics
- Vitamins, minerals, trace elements and drenches
- Hormones and reproductive products
- Artificial insemination equipment, straws, flasks and liquid nitrogen handling kit
- Feed additives and supplements
Equipment and diagnostics
- Syringes, needles, drenching guns, dosing equipment and automatic vaccinators
- Cool boxes, vaccine carriers, ice packs and field cold chain equipment
- Ear tags, applicators and identification systems
- Rapid tests, diagnostic kits and sampling consumables
- Surgical and obstetric instruments
- Spray races, dip chemicals and crush equipment
We do not carry live animals. That is a specialist movement with its own permits, welfare requirements and transport standards, and it is not what we do. What we do not ship
One DDP price, compliance included
As with human medicines, we quote DDP, delivered duty paid: one figure covering international freight, handling and release, transit through Kenya and Uganda, customs clearance, South Sudan import duty and taxes, the compliance work, delivery to your location, and the delivery evidence pack.
Statutory fees payable to an authority for a licence or registration are passed through at cost with the receipt. Cold chain beyond what you told us you needed, and storage caused by documents that never arrived, sit outside the price.
Get a quotation
Tell us what you are shipping
Send us the cargo description, weight or volume, and the pickup and delivery addresses. We reply with a written rate, the transit time and the documents you will need.
The regulatory position
Veterinary products are regulated, and people are sometimes surprised by which body does it.
The same authority as human medicines. The Drug and Food Control Authority Act covers drugs, poisons, chemicals and medical devices for human or animal use, which brings veterinary medicines squarely within the Authority's remit.
It is not a lighter regime because the patient has four legs.
So the same structure applies:
| Requirement | Who decides |
|---|---|
| Importer licence for regulated products | Drug and Food Control Authority |
| Marketing authorisation or listing for the product | Drug and Food Control Authority |
| Import permit for medicines and medical products | Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment |
| Certificate of Conformity where in scope | South Sudan National Bureau of Standards |
| | Customs entry, classification and assessment | National Revenue Authority |
Animal health policy sits elsewhere. Disease control, vaccination campaigns and veterinary service delivery are led through the livestock and animal resources side of government.
South Sudan has been a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health since 2014, which is the international framework for listed diseases and the measures countries take against them.
If your consignment is tied to a government or donor funded campaign, tell us. The documentation trail is different and it is easier to build it from the start.
What we handle, and what stays with you
We handle the classification, the valuation, identifying every permit and certificate the consignment needs, preparing and lodging the applications, chasing the authorities and your supplier, the transit declaration and bond, the customs entry and the release.
Two things cannot be done for you, exactly as with human medicines: the importer licence is held by your organisation, and the Authority decides on product authorisation. We can prepare and chase both. We will not promise you an outcome or a date, and we will tell you on day one if there is a gap rather than after you have paid a supplier.
How this works for human medicines
Cold chain for livestock vaccines
Most veterinary vaccines want two to eight degrees, and some want colder. A vaccine that has been out of range is not a delayed consignment, it is a wasted one, and in the field nobody finds out until the herd is not protected.
Tell us the range before you book. Not after, and not as an assumption. Lyophilised vaccines and their diluents have different requirements and must arrive together, in the right quantities, or neither is usable.
Validated shippers rated for the real transit time. Including the last leg to the county or the camp, which is usually the part people forget to include when they size the packaging.
Data loggers inside the consignment, with the full record handed to you on delivery so you can see the whole journey rather than take our word for it.
Excursions reported with the data. If a consignment goes out of range you hear it from us immediately, and your veterinary or quality lead decides whether the product is still usable. That call is not a freight forwarder's to make.
Dry ice is a dangerous good and is declared as one. Liquid nitrogen for semen flasks has its own handling and documentation requirements, and so do the flasks themselves.
Air is usually right for vaccines, because every day on the road is a day of cold chain risk and the freight premium is small against a ruined consignment. Air freight to Juba
Agree the handover. Who receives it at the far end, and whether they can put it straight into a working cold store or a charged vaccine carrier. A cool box standing in the sun outside a locked county office has undone the entire chain.
Acaricides, dips and toxic products
This is the part of a veterinary consignment most likely to be misdeclared, usually by someone who genuinely did not realise.
Acaricides, dip concentrates, sprays and many ectoparasiticides are toxic chemicals. For transport purposes they are dangerous goods, with packing, labelling, documentation and mode restrictions attached. The fact that the product is sold in an agrovet shop does not change its classification.
- Declare them. Send us the product name and the safety data sheet and we will tell you how they can travel.
- They are quoted separately from ordinary cargo, because the handling is different.
- Concentrates leak. Original sealed containers, absorbent packing, upright, and never loaded with feed, food or anything they could contaminate.
- Air has stricter limits than road for many of these products. If a consignment cannot fly, we will say so rather than let it reach screening and be offloaded.
What we do not ship, and what is quoted separately
Trypanocides and products under tighter control
Trypanocides matter in large parts of South Sudan, and in common with some other veterinary products they attract closer regulatory attention than a vitamin drench. Expect a longer documentation trail, and start it early.
Anything under international control is outside what we carry, and we will tell you plainly if that is what you are proposing.
Shelf life, batches and the paperwork that follows the product
Veterinary products are traceable by batch and that trail has to survive the journey.
- Batch numbers and expiry dates are listed on the packing list and checked at delivery
- Short dated stock is a problem, not a bargain. Regulators commonly require a minimum proportion of shelf life remaining on arrival, so confirm the current requirement with the Authority before buying anything close to its date
- Certificates of analysis and manufacturer documentation travel with the consignment
- Withdrawal periods matter to your end users. Make sure the labelling that reaches the field is the labelling that left the factory
Packing and handling
Glass vials and ampoules are cushioned on all six sides in their original cartons. We do not repack a regulated product to make a load fit.
Vaccines and diluents stay together. Splitting them across consignments is a way of turning two usable shipments into none.
Liquids upright and sealed, with absorbent packing, because a leaking drench contaminates everything it touches and a leaking acaricide is a bigger problem than that.
Cold chain packaging is not reopened in transit. Where a consignment has to be consolidated, it is handled as a sealed unit.
Equipment crated properly. Spray races, crush components and AI flasks are crated with bracing, and where the crate is solid wood the timber is debarked, heat treated and marked to the international standard.
Marking and piece counts. Every piece marked with the consignee and a piece number, and the packing list written from the actual packing.
Campaigns arrive in phases
A mass vaccination campaign is not one delivery. It is a sequence tied to a calendar, and missing the window wastes the whole exercise.
- Send us the county list and the campaign dates and we will plan deliveries against them
- One consignment can be split across several locations, with a separate signed delivery note for each
- Cold chain items and dry goods do not want the same handling, and it is often cheaper and safer to split them
- Where a location is not reachable yet, we can hold in a cold store and release rather than deliver into a gap
Delivered to the county, the camp or the shop
Animal health cargo helps nobody sitting in a warehouse in Juba. We deliver to the state or county veterinary office, the agrovet shop, the programme store, the ranch or the cattle camp.
That includes Kapoeta, Torit, Bor, Bentiu, Malakal, Rumbek, Wau, Aweil, Yambio and Yei, and smaller places where the route allows it. Field movements are quoted per consignment, because the season and the state of the road decide the route and the timing, and in a country where the rains close roads for months that is not a detail.
Every delivery comes back with a signed delivery note naming who received it, photographs at the delivery point, video of the handover where you want it, the piece count checked against the packing list, and the full temperature record where the consignment was cold chain. For a campaign that pack is usually what closes out the reporting.
What we need from you
- The commercial invoice, showing what was actually paid
- The packing list, from the actual packing, with piece counts and weights
- Product details: name, presentation, pack size, manufacturer and country of manufacture
- Batch numbers and expiry dates
- Safety data sheets for acaricides, dips and any chemical product
- Certificates of analysis where the product has them
- Your importer licence and any product authorisation, or a clear statement that you do not yet hold them
- The temperature requirement, stated explicitly
What South Sudan customs will ask for
Importing veterinary products for the first time
Agrovet businesses and livestock programmes often import for the first time without knowing where to start, and there is no reason they should.
Send us what you want to buy, the quantities, the supplier, the destination and whether you hold an importer licence. We will come back with what the consignment needs to be lawful, what we handle, what has to be in your name, a realistic view of the timing and one DDP price.
If what you are proposing will not work, you will hear it straight away.
Related
- Medicine and medical equipment
- Humanitarian cargo and exempted goods
- South Sudan customs clearance
- Certificate of Conformity
- What we do not ship
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Are veterinary medicines regulated the same as human ones?
Largely, yes, and this surprises people. The Drug and Food Control Authority Act covers drugs, poisons, chemicals and devices for human or animal use, so veterinary products sit with the same regulator. It is not a lighter regime because the patient has four legs.
Can you keep livestock vaccines cold all the way to a county?
Yes, and we size the packaging for the real transit time including the last leg, which is the part people forget. Validated shippers, data loggers inside the consignment, and the full temperature record handed to you on delivery. If there is an excursion you hear it from us with the data, and your veterinary lead decides whether the product is usable.
Can you ship acaricides and dip chemicals?
Usually, but they are not ordinary cargo. Acaricides, dip concentrates and many ectoparasiticides are toxic chemicals and are treated as dangerous goods for transport, with packing, labelling and mode restrictions. Being sold in an agrovet shop does not change that. Send the product name and the safety data sheet and we will tell you how it can travel.
Do vaccines and diluents have to travel together?
Yes, in matching quantities. Splitting them across consignments is a reliable way of turning two usable shipments into none, because neither is any use without the other.
Do you transport live animals?
No. Live animal movement is a specialist job with its own permits, welfare requirements and transport standards, and it is not what we do. We move the medicines, vaccines, equipment and supplies that keep animals healthy.
We are running a vaccination campaign. Can deliveries be phased?
Yes. Send the county list and the campaign dates and we will plan deliveries against them, with a separate signed delivery note for each location. Cold chain items and dry goods often travel better separately, and where a location is not reachable yet we can hold in a cold store and release rather than deliver into a gap.
Can we buy short dated stock to save money?
We would advise against it. Regulators commonly require a minimum proportion of shelf life remaining on arrival, so confirm the current requirement with the Authority before buying anything close to its date. A consignment refused on dating is rarely salvageable, which makes a cheap batch an expensive mistake.
What if our organisation is not licensed to import yet?
Tell us on day one. We can prepare and lodge the application and advise on what the Authority asks for, and some clients import through a licensed partner while their own application is in progress. What no forwarder can do is hold that licence for you, and finding that out at the border with a cold chain consignment is the worst possible moment.
Before you rely on this page
This page is published as general guidance for people shipping cargo to South Sudan. It is not legal advice and it isn't customs advice. Duty rates, fees, permits and procedures are set by the authorities named above and they change. South Sudan sets its tax and duty rates in an annual Financial Act, so what applies to your goods depends on the date they are entered.
We don't publish duty rates, penalty amounts or clearance fees that we cannot tie to a current official source. Where a figure matters to your costing, confirm it with the relevant authority or ask us to check it for your specific goods and HS code before you ship.